 |
 |
|
 |
How It HappensIdentity thieves steal your personal data because they want people to think they're you.They want to use your good reputation to buy expensive things on credit and get themselves out of trouble when they get arrested. Creditors will give them credit because you have a good credit rating and lots of assets. The police will let them off because you don't have a criminal record (yet). The personal data they need varies. It includes your name, address, phone number, SSN, email address, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and any passwords or pin numbers. They don't need it all, but the more they have, the less difficulty they'll find impersonating you. They have many different ways to gather this data. Lew Reed -- see his excellent presentation on identity theft at http://www.myidfix.com/whatidtheft_files/frame.htm -- notes that there are low tech and high tech ways to get this information. Some low tech ways to get your information include stealing your mail, changing your address so your mail gets delivered to the criminals, and digging through your garbage. People also sometimes watch you enter your PIN number at the ATM machine, and then steal your purse or wallet to take out money later. Some high tech ways are phishing and hacking. Sometimes people will send you emails pretending to be your bank or Paypal or Amazon or some other Internet company that you have a business relationship with. They will tell you to log in to your account, and then send you to a fake page. You'll try to log in and they'll collect your user name and password. Later they'll go to your bank's real webpage, log in as you, and steal all your money. Other people try to go in the back door instead of the front door. Rather than trying to get your user name or password, they'll try to hack into a company's database and gain access to all of their customers' information. Sometimes these people work for the companies. They use their access to download the database to one of their own computers. Other times, the hackers aren't affiliated with. Identity theft insurance is very important for everyone. |
|
 |
 |
